My mom rocks for a lot of reasons, but most recently when we were in Italy she had a great accomplishment. After walking down the stairs through the cliffs from Ravello to Minori and lounging on the beach for a couple hours she walked back up with us–that is 1,333 stairs she walked up, people. It was about one mile away–a mile of stairs away.

This was a great accomplishment for all of us, but the rest of us who climbed the stairs are hikers and we do Mt. Washington or a similar mountain nearly every year. We are a little more used to it. Not to mention my mom is twice our age (that’s a compliment, Mom!). In addition to the stairs, it was roughly 95 degrees and humid. Parts of the staircase were shaded, but not all of them.

She did a great job. She paced herself and made it to the top. Past the top, in fact, because we took a wrong turn and ended up going up and additional 189 stairs, give or take a few (that’s more than 1500 total). No, I wasn’t counting, but we met someone who grew up there who claimed to have counted throughout his childhood. The people we were staying with thought we were silly for not taking the bus. But the bus doesn’t give you the same sense on accomplishment.

Mom, you’re awesome! Keep up the good work.

To those of you reading: what’s your next challenge? What is something physical you’ve been wanting to try with you body? How are you going to push yourself to greatness?